Board of Education Meeting 12/15/22

001foreign happens okay awesome um foreign okay I apologize again and with it being 6 35 we would like to call this meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States foreign bored I would like a motion to approve the agenda for December 15 2022 as presented [Music] all those in favor say aye aye aye all as opposed say no I'm curious smelling your tongue thank you Mrs Lane before we get started with our official recognitions I just want to recognize and thank the Hollenbeck band students who so graciously graciously graciously share their time and talents with us this evening and thank you to their teacher Mrs Dorsey for coordinating the musical selections we enjoyed before the meeting I think you guys should come back every meeting tonight we have the honor of

002recognizing our 2022 Emerson excellence in teaching Award winners the Emerson excellence in teaching Awards now in its 33rd year is one of the St Louis Region's most recognized teacher recognition programs honorees are selected by their school's administrators for their accomplishments and dedication to their students and the teaching profession winners receive an engraved Crystal Apple from Tiffany and Co and are recognized in the St Louis Post-Dispatch tonight they're only going to get a certificate so there to get the real war we're excited to celebrate Jennifer Daugherty and Lori Rupp who are among the 87 St Louis area teachers selected this year as examples of truly outstanding educational excellence and I'll read just a few excerpts from each of their nomination letters and then I'll call them forward to receive their certificate so first off Jennifer Doherty

003is a band teacher at Hollenbeck Middle School she had she's been there for 24 years she serves as the department leader of the Fine Arts and practical Arts team at Hollenbeck and has led multiple School Improvement efforts she has also coordinated efforts to bring the community into the school through Veterans Day Celebrations Halloween spooktaculars and other events in her nomination letter principal Dr Ali Klaus says as a skilled educator Jen's ability to take a student with little to no experience with a variety of instruments and be able to grow them into passionate artists and performers is unmatched this is a testament to her expertise and enthusiasm that is brought into her classroom each day she has a keen mind for understanding the needs of each student through her personal experiences and love of young people

004both inside and outside the classroom additionally she brings together her colleagues as she is a conduit to solve problems build continuity among teachers and is highly respected among her peers Miss Doherty is truly a gift to the Hollenbeck community and is well deserving of this recognition her humble and steadfast approach to leadership education supporting individuals and care for all is an inspiration and should be commended please join me in congratulating Miss Jennifer Doherty for this Emerson excellence in teaching award thank you [Music] yeah thank you I had her fit too there you go perfect next we would like to recognize Mrs Laurie Rupp who has served as a family and consumer Sciences teacher at Francis Howell High School for the past seven years with 25 total years of service with the Francis House School District

005administrators at how high credit Mrs Rupp for the tremendous growth they've seen in the family and consumer science department since her arrival she was also instrumental in the creation of the teaching as a career Pathways program and due to the high level of success of that particular program she has had several state qualifiers in the Ed Rising competition her nomination letter reads in part Mrs Rupp sets herself apart from her colleagues through a tremendous dedication to her students and Department her passion for teaching is evident in everything she does she is an expert at developing concrete experiences for her students which provide a tangible product allowing her to make content specific connections as she delivers instruction I cannot think of a better person to receive this award than Mrs Rupp not only is she a

006tremendous classroom teacher who utilizes exceptional educational processes within her classroom which creates phenomenal results but she is also develop the future of our profession and her dedication to the implementation of our teaching as a career Pathways program you will not find a more talented dedicated caring and compassionate educator please join me in congratulating Mrs Lori ruff [Applause] thank you foreign [Applause] principal Mr Jeff Fletcher to the podium to introduce our student board representative for the evening good evening tonight I get the pleasure of introducing our student rep from france.org Mr Grant Kelly Grant is currently a junior at Francis Hall North he is also the junior class president a member of National Honor Society he is a member of the night Pride marching band The Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble he is a member of

007our huddle he is a huddle leader for the fellowship of Christian athletes a student council parliamentarian a basketball manager and also a tennis player Grand Canyon thank you [Music] um [Applause] foreign we're excited to have you here feel free to make any kind of comments at any time you want just miss Janet we'll show you how to do it and the only thing you can't do is vote great it's quite familiar I think about how the board meetings work you've probably met a student attended 90 of them I think so he's well on his way um finally I'll turn it over now to our social studies content leader Mr Matt Van Horn to provide tonight's best practice presentation on the youth and government program a green and board patrons guests thank you for allowing me

008to be here this evening to talk to you a little bit about one of the programs that they offer at a few of our schools the youth and government and the Civic Leadership Institute programs uh as Ms Jill said I am the K-12 social studies content leader and I was able this year to go and be a part of the youth and government program so just a little bit about the background of this program it was established in 1936 by the YMCA and annually serves 47 000 students in 49 states the Missouri program uh the Missouri program joined in 1949 uh and has served over 10 000 Missouri Youth in 2007 the middle school program the Civic Leadership Institute was added as a way of allowing students to get used to the programs and get

009a feel for how Youth and government is run uh and the Francis South School District district has been part of this program for over 45 years the mission of this program is to allow to teenagers to be responsible citizens and exercise their critical thinking their professional skills their leadership their character and the goal of the program is to really allow the students to this hands-on experience of the political awareness and understanding while learning the meaning of the government experience our schools attend the first of the two conferences there's a Lewis conference and then there's the Clark conference our students attend the three-day conference in Jefferson City and this is at the Missouri state capitol uh the whole idea around this is that an immersive uh three days that they are there they have worked on

010prior to this writing bills uh establishing uh how to do parliamentary procedures uh debating and really going into what government is like so then when they get there they can actually go through this program uh I forgot to say we do have one of our CLI our Civic Leadership Institute sponsors Andrea jant here this evening supporting us uh the French style School District sends around 100 Kids annually between our two programs uh this year two of our three high schools sent students to the program and one of our five middle schools uh this year we're also able to perform a Cooperative with our students from some schools that did not have a delegation being able to go and join students from one of the other delegations I'd really like to see some of our schools

011allowing this opportunity for all of our students to go this would be a great opportunity for students and I don't really like that some schools don't have that Avenue so just being able to open it up even if it is using that Cooperative I think is great for all of our students our high school sponsor was unable to be here this evening to talk to us but we do have uh one of our standout students Avery Smith from Francis Howell to say a few words about the program good evening my name is Avery Smith and I'm a junior at Francis Howell High School I became moack my second my sophomore year as a way to get more involved in school little did I know that it would completely change my life at my first youth

012in government conference I participated in the judicial program I learned how to read cases find case law create arguments and improve my public speaking skills it was at this conference that I received the top score out of over 300 attorneys for my oral arguments moved on to the semi-final debate round and was given the outstanding attorney award it was because of this conference that I discovered my passion for learning about our judicial system prior to yard I had no idea what I wanted to do after I After High government and politics had always been interesting to me but I had never seriously considered pursuing it as a career until attending yeah earlier this year I applied for the Youth and government youth change makers program through this program I was selected to be the Missouri

013delegate at the National Youth and government change makers conference in Washington DC at this conference I met with our Senators to discuss my change makers project which would address the issue of inaccurate and harmful nutrition and eating disorder education being taught in health classes as well as the YMCA's legislative priorities it was through this program that I was able to get first-hand experience with how legislation is created which has really helped me to better understand the topics I'm currently learning in apgo recently I was chosen to represent Missouri uh at the youth and government program for the Youth Advocate Program through this program I was able to learn about different roles of Congress advocacy and how we can use it to help strengthen my community and The Importance of Being educated on the issues and

014candidates in your area all of these programs have taught me so many lessons that I've been able to apply to all aspects of my life I now have a deep understanding of government and politics which has allowed me to succeed in apgov I had become a better writer which has helped me succeed in English class and I discovered my goal of becoming a lawyer which has pushed me to pursue success in all of my other classes has changed my life along with many others by providing the opportunity to get first-hand experience with government politics there truly is no other program like it thank you [Applause] um just this year these are some of the awards I know there are many we can go back to them later uh but there are many awards these are

015again just from our students from the around 100 students that we were able to take this year uh this program is amazing as we heard firsthand just one in account I I do truly know that our students all have have learned so much from this that both helps them academically as well as to be individuals in society so just a quote to leave us with the beginning of every government starts with the education of our youth and again I thank you for the opportunity just to share a little bit of this with you this evening foreign thank you okay next up we will have patreon comments during future comments residents of the district and staff members are invited to address the board of education on issues related to the school district s are called forward

016in the order of sign up and each speaker has three minutes to make the remarks please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else is not permitted the board appreciates that you have taken the time to come this evening and we value both your input and perspective I would like to remind everyone that we expect the speakers will remain civil and respectful when given remarks if anyone fails to comply with board policies regulations and rules we reserve the right to cut those three minutes short for your convenience our three-minute clock is ready and we welcome Jamie Martin it's a step forward good evening my comment tonight is the first of many you will hear in support of diversity and equity

017in our district last month our community heard from both a patron and a board member whose comments were racially insensitive and factually unsound ly this is a pattern in October it was suggested that a teacher's attended conferences sessions in order to learn about the challenges faced by students with lgbtq plus identities teachers might violate school policy by engaging in inappropriate conversations concerning students sexual experiences this extreme dedication to a single Viewpoint and to limiting diversity of thought shows a concerning level of intolerance but in October when I approached the board member to share my concerns he responded with a focus on academic excellence and getting back to basics to demonstrate the need for a more whole child view I shared these experiences from my own classroom I once taught a student who was released from

018a Behavioral Unit after living there for an extended period of time and who is a foster child it was my responsibility to help him and the other students in my class interact in ways that would maximize learning I taught students who have lost their parents one student's mother passed for breast cancer in May and she spent the last few months of her mom's life in my English class another student's parents died just months before and he spent most of the much of the first year without his father learning to write Middle School essays with me I've taught refugees who were in their first year of learning a new language and also healing from seeing war and death up close and our top black children and Normandy who taught me more about myself and education than

019I'd learned in the eight years before I became their teacher some of them were gay Mr cook if teachers are going to teach the basics if they're going to push academic Excellence we must and you must learn some skills in dealing with the diversity to The Human Condition tonight we have a gift for all board members a book A book which speaks to the ways in which discriminatory practices have created and sustained the equity gap for students of color a note inside each book we'll read all our all children in our district deserve a learning environment that Fosters intellectual and personal growth and general well-being race streaming is one of the most powerful predictors of how children fare in our public institutions Opening Our Eyes minds and hearts to inequity is this first step to

020affecting positive change way we know better we do better we invite the board to read this book and discuss it with equity-minded community members in February and then sir board we invite you to do better [Applause] next next up we have Courtney camp hi my name is Courtney and I usually her pronounced I am speaking to student preparedness for the future in relation to comments May at the last boarding board meeting by Mr cook and doing it the best way I know how which is providing perspective on some of my story as in contrast to the rich opportunity my child has at Francis Hall School District I went to high school in a rural District it was very small town my graduating class just 18 people uh the funding was 50 percent coming from local

021sources and 15 coming from State fed not that different from us to put it into perspective their District operates on a budget of which is around 1.2 percent of our District budget yes I know population produces funding but what you need to know also is that population number was on purpose as my hometown is part of the larger St Louis Regional history of racism and segregation I am still learning that to specific history but going back to funding let's just say opportunities weren't abundant no our program no football or soccer teams no after school programs no AP classes it was pretty back to the basis I guess you would say my high schooler was one of two in the county I grew up in with him we shared all Community Resources churches local green elevators

022Etc all except for the public schools for years the two districts about 20 minutes of a drive from one another have been on the path to consolidation but despite well-planned proposals sharing our resources always got shut down by adults in the community over inability to come together sorry my alma mater face in front of that and continue to do so today you will find class sizes of three students Freshman Class dudes while the other district is benefiting for parents buying second homes up more 20 minutes away so their children can access many resources my alma mater lost now I think we can all agree that it's a privilege and very questionable practices and in the meantime more opportunities lost for my alma mater the most devastating for me to be in the music program I

023was a band kid too today I work in the fashion industry I'm an apparel designer by trade which I want to point for you not girl at 15 to 16 years old saved an Impossible Dream career I am in this career today because growing up in such a small town um didn't necessarily provide me all these same opportunities my child has but it did allow me access to small class sizes and endless access to support my teachers and they were deeply invested in me and I in them so much said that when I approached my principal with curriculum I had created as an independent fashion drawing he supported me for approval so I had a portfolio to apply to Art School and it worked I got into it um a great school and here I

024am today doing what I love in an industry that feels impossible to change despite the amounts of need and that change is what I hope for our all of our kids in this District um for them to be able to join that industry and and help thank you for your time is up next up we have Angie quickly hello board my name is Angie Quigley and I am the parent of a kindergartner here in the district and he came to me with a problem that he wanted to solve and so we talked about how can we solve it and here we are for family night at the school board meeting so Colin's problem is that he doesn't want to purchase school lunch because of the amount of trash that is generated um so every kid

025when they when they get lunch they have a styrofoam tray that's disposable with the styrofoam plate and then a styrofoam Bowl maybe a plastic Bowl but all of it he says goes straight to the landfill and so he wanted to make sure that the district was aware that this was happening um I I went ahead and checked the website to see what the policy is on sustainability and there is actually there I'm sure as you know there's a page on sustainability which states that the district is committed to modeling environmental stewardship um and also that schools reuse plastic use reusable plastic lunch trays and baskets um and so just let you know that's not happening we're using styrofoam it's all going to trash and um totally get that you know it's been a crazy few

026years maybe we've had to do things a little bit differently so I think everybody could use some Grace you know in a lot of areas but um if we've gotten off track maybe we can brainstorm on on how to uh get back to using the reusable trades I know there's issues with labor and you know cost and and whatnot but I'm sure if we put our heads together we can figure out how to model good stewardship for the Earth so but uh that's it thank you very much [Applause] next up we have Marissa Polson good evening my name is Marissa Posey and I have three kids in the district um I felt compelled I've spoken here before but I felt committed to come here tonight after the board meeting last month uh we have an

027amazing District uh but we can approve I mean we all can improve we have to work together with open minds and hearts and willingness to listen to other experiences that are different from ours and to be able to have these conversations using facts um I believe it's my job as a parent to give my kids all the tools that they're going to need to go out into the world now we all get to choose our tools what religion we want to teach our kids um interpersonal relationships not to becomes fans um whether uh we get to instill those values in our kids I believe so in this story just think about how many values we have so I believe that the results of that is the school district's job to prepare our kids to thrive

028in a diverse workplace and Community because that's what we've got black and brown people people of different religions or no religion lgbtq plus people exist these are indisputable facts now these groups of humans are marginalized and have had different experiences that I have facts oh just like this fact my daughter's dyslexic she has had to start five miles behind everybody else she is an IP she has been an intervention since kindergarten in this district and I'm not gonna cry like I want to but you guys are amazing this district is phenomenal um and I have the privilege of being able to get her extra tutoring so that she can be at the same starting point as most of the other kids that's equity giving each student what they need to be successful our teachers are

029Highly Educated Specialists they deeply care for our children as whole people not as grades we need to continue to give them the tools and training to support each child each child for what they need to be successful and frankly give these teachers more to in order to do that yes for another day um you know I hear the word indoctrination being thrown out at these meetings and indoctrination is to teach someone to fully accept ideas opinions and beliefs of a particular group and not to consider other ideas and opinions and beliefs between wanting to censor what everyone's kids can check out from the library asking to full elective black history courses it appears that someone to have even though we have the ability to not do those things those choices are wanting to be taken

030away from my children and I think diversity of thought is super important I truly hope that we can Tamp down this National rhetoric really listen to each other I won't listen I don't sit down and go talk to everybody in here that would disagree with me let's sit down and face the real issues that are at our district and I believe thank you your time [Music] next up we have Kaylee windmiller hi all um so I wrote this speech and rewrote it like 10 times um so I'm not gonna read it all tonight I'm just gonna read a brief little the ending actually um but next month I will be back to hopefully give you my entire speech basically I hope that you all enjoy the upcoming holidays with loved ones I have to say

031goodbye together yet another year of Our Lives May 2023 bring us the strength courage and Leadership needed in order to continue to push this District forward while making space for all along the way thank you [Music] [Applause] next up we have Jared Pillsbury I was prepared but then graduated so now I had to step it up anyway good to see all of you yeah I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who once said you can't believe everything you read on the internet and perhaps Ronald Reagan who asked when is my money the Nigerian prince promised me through email gonna get here already now I realize the most everyone understands these things are total fantasy made up during the dawn of the internet one to make us think and laugh and one to depart us from our

032money and not get laps and in 2022 no one should be falling for these things as being remotely factual yeah too many times people accept their game telephone now played mostly over the Internet social media how my best friend's sister's boyfriend brother's girlfriend her from this guy who knows this kid who's going on with a girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 flighters last night I guess it's pretty serious but seriously the game telephone you heard however you heard it it isn't alive it's not a source or maybe if you do try no just Google it on your next big assignment let us all know how that turns out great give that up give that a go report back I've witnessed a person engaging in Facebook comments about children identifying as cats in a

033classroom setting ridiculous I volunteered at the polls last April and one person and the board was with me when a voter came up to ask about the Board of Education race that voter let us know that Hillary was working with stem cells to create Ai and she would be voting today against all of that not sure what to do what any of that had to do with school board but okay and I'll close by saying a sitting board member you director cook invoking is part of your argument a Nazi educator Alliance organization in the context of professional development workshops is both ludicrous and an embarrassment to the district get a new analogy please we wouldn't accept any of these statements in a business setting or other vocation in a classroom essay we shouldn't accept this

034when it comes to our school district and making key decisions or any decisions for that matter we want to prepare our students to thrive in a diverse and modern 21st century workplace and Community where critical thinkers thought leaders hard workers and growth mindsets are sought after and no one is more sought after than a graduate with Francis Howell thanks to our rigorous academic standards quality education dedicated support and staff and all of our families here in support from a community and the administration Community committed to Excellence we want to invest in a school district this school district to move Francis Howell forward welcome an opportunity to connect with you speak with you after the board meeting to discuss ways we can make this District an even better example of academic excellence in Missouri and Beyond

035thank you I hope everyone has a happy holiday the rest will break if you want to just talk about Ferris Bueller's Day Off afterwards I'm good for that too thank you for your time [Applause] next up we have Carrie zielkowski hello happy holidays everyone thank you to District leadership for the opportunities for parents and community members to participate and engage in District events I attended the second round table last month and it was very informative and well organized I hope opportunities like this continue to be scheduled I have three messages to share with you today number one Francis House mission statement states that the district is quote empowering students to be lifelong Learners prepared for the future end quote as we look for the future the world for our children continues to become more and

036more diverse we must continue to make all students and families feel welcome and safe in our schools through initiating Equitable and inclusive practices I like the existing Mission but I challenge the district to expand the mission to include empowering students with 21st century skills in order to prepare them to thrive in a diverse Workforce in the future and hopefully a more Equitable and inclusive community as well number two our um teachers and staff members are amazing individuals who truly care about students and their Futures as a community we need to trust our teachers and our school staff directors cook and Bertrand I urge you to reconsider your votes regarding travel requests going forward we must support our teachers and contact leaders in their professional development any sessions on diversity equity and conclusion and or on

037lgbtq plus individuals must be looked at as opportunities to support all students in our schools number three some in our school Community have are are making the word Equity a scary word it's really not it's just a best practice to make sure everyone gets what they need let me share an example of educational Equity that I see at FHM where I have two ninth graders Night Time meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays this opportunity allows clubs and tutoring to occur during the school day my daughter is an athlete and involved in speech and faith and even though she's really busy after school she can participate in an environmental club during that time students can also use this time to check in with teachers for extra help or finish a project during the school day this week

038my son completed a math test that he missed when he was sick even though I'm sure night time has some negatives like less time in core classes on those days I think it's a step in with the right direction to make sure that all students have access to clubs and interventions however as we look to the future I would love to take it a step further by having the district provide activity buses at the end of the day after activities and practices FHN also offers tutoring after school that my child could benefit from but my kids are only 14 and can't drive yet and who knows if they'll have a car when they're 16. I know transportation is very expensive and bus driver positions are currently understaffed here as well as Nationwide but I as

039we look to the Future perhaps activity buses can be considered to help all students access the amazing opportunities in the Francis Howell District this idea would help support access equity and inclusion in our district again Happy Holidays to all and here's to a 2023 that is Equitable and inclusive for all students thank you next up we have Emily winham hi I'm Emily first I want to say that um I would just Glenn Parkway and we did have activity buses and I was shocked we came here that we didn't so um since I had I was a stay-at-home mom so I became the activity bus so yeah okay so I gotta play with them and now my speech is going to be too short okay um so I've watched the last few board meetings and I've

040been appalled at some of the things I've listened to speakers saying our children are going to hell what's that about speaker also said we changed gender identity to sexual orientation these are different things not different names for the same things saying there are churches that are Banning talking about God where how is any of this relevant to what's going on in our district foul shot to learn that board members are not approving travel expenses for conferences because there happens to be sessions pertaining to lgbtq students rejecting them because you can't support it doesn't change the fact that these students exist they have struggles and need help looking for statistics for the speech I found that 45 of lgbtq youths seriously considered tipping suit tempted suicide in the past year and 60 of use of lgbtq

041Youth wanted who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it if you are a school board member it doesn't matter if you personally are not supportive of lgbtq as a concept you should still care about all the students in the district one of the new members also said they should focus on academics lgbtq kids students are more likely to miss school because they feel unsafe and more or less like to drop out can't focus on academics of students aren't in school then there's a certain president of a certain pact who spoke about last meeting went on This Racist slant it was Dreadful going on and on about random black people not being convicted of crimes on the other side of the country it has nothing to do with issues

042pertaining to our school district in the here and now I have no no doubt that this person would not say that his words are racist but if black and brown people are telling you that your words are racist they most likely are he has a lot he said on a radio program with County Council Brazil that St Charles is the most conservative County in Missouri a fact that's very easy to look up of 114 counties in Missouri 108 had higher percentage of Voters voting voting red I know this seems off topic off topic but when you have a president of a political pact who helped elect two School Board of seats and are once three more seats Who Lies people really shouldn't know about it if I've anything I've said anything upsets anybody listening absolutely

043vote appropriately in April only seven percent of registered voters voted in the last election [Applause] next up we have Amy greiter thanks board so I grew up in this District um moved away for a little time after college but I moved back nine years ago because I wanted my kids to grow up here and thrive in the same school as I did I love St Charles I'm very proud of this District that said a weirdly fearful climate over a more Equity embracing world seems to be lingering over this community as of late like an oppressive fog and no one sees clearly in fog school boards work with their communities to improve student achievement and our public is school boards work with their communities to improve student achievement in public schools our school board Champions our

044District's mission of empowering students to be lifelong Learners prepared for the future we've heard that a number of times tonight I wonder how we can prepare our Learners though for the future by shielding them from the diversity complexity and challenge they'll face instead of guiding them through it in an academically appropriate way like we always have knowledge is nothing to fear exposing Learners to information so they understand something is vastly different than activism and installing instilling personal values around it we serve our children and each other best when we model our district mission of being lifelong Learners ourselves as adults we must Embrace knowledge and engage each other respectfully public schools have the unique challenge of supporting all families with their different backgrounds needs and beliefs so in public schools diversity is necessarily embraced and

045nurtured art Learners are not empowered when they are not embraced for all of their diversity let's also Empower our teachers the recent denials I've heard this several times tonight too go figure it must be coordinating um teacher requests continuing for continuing education feels anything but empowering I think it's safe to assume that our teachers Network continuing education would help them invest in their work and that they always have the best interests of our children at the core of everything they do because 100 they do there's no way they would ever sign up for the work that they do and otherwise every day denying a teacher request because two percent of a conference secession summaries included words that a given board member opposes in the corporate world we call that micromanaging and it doesn't help retain

046good employees and it won't help us retain great teachers parents retain the responsibility to instill morals and values in our children and as our kids are exposed to all kinds of things life throws at them we're sometimes pulled into difficult and uncomfortable conversations about topics we may wish we didn't have to deal with but those conversations are also opportunities for us to help put context around those things and then we too prepare our children for the world around them the parents here actually agree on so much a hundred percent our hearts are filled with love and hope for our children and their Futures and our administrators and teachers have been Partners to us in successfully guiding our children through academic growth and changes in society for decades these times are no different and neither is

047your responsibility as board members please come please model careful consideration Empower our teachers and be courageous and caring when concerned parents need reassurance that family values and beliefs will always remain with the parents to manage while our schools remain steadfast in their mission to empower students to be lifelong Learners prepared thank you [Applause] next up we have Christopher Brooks boy take a month off and their phone goes crazy it's enjoyable to see the passion here that everyone who's so concerned about the district is attempting to volunteer for committees running for office and doing other things to get involved I'd love to be involved except our academic committees seem to be stacked against any other has a dissenting opinion so for those who are calling for diversity of thought today I hope you'll consider asking the

048administration to revise the ways in which they allow people onto their academic committees having reviewed those records it's very clear that there was only one expected type of thought for those who'd be allowed on the committed I hear diversity must be embraced in public schools okay what does that mean please define diversity please define what it is to embrace it and what is the school doing now that is not a race and diversity a recent incident over at Sager middle indicated that some Middle School administration officials don't seem interested in embracing diversity when it comes to religious things um I hear a lot of talks about equity Dr hopin was was a superintendent for three years and that was one of his major focuses in fact the district put out an equity page right not

049that long ago last year describing the district's Equity efforts Dr Norman had an equity committee what in three years did that Equity committee accomplish attempted to reduce the challenge courses available to Middle School students created a controversial and highly politicized elected of course at the high school and well I'm not sure if you've accomplish much else I don't think it had anything to do with the drop of test scores during the time consuming played in coveted and Desi's messing up with the tests for that um what would you change folks if you want more Equity work you want more diversity work what would you change the only thing I've heard over the last few months here is a call for a Dei commissar incidentally do you know why the Soviet Union was called the union

050socialist republics you know what a Soviet is is a council of commissars in the party who know exactly what the ideology of the party is and how to support it because none of none of the Regular People The Peasants the cool acts know what really party ideology is how to support it so what they have to do is they have to go to these commissars is the Soviet it's a good approval for starting your planet with the right side of the party is uh and because they're always changing they are and because they're always changing their mind about what department beliefs are it's kind of hard it's like a guru right you know everyone has Donald Trump or is real estate scams right for that kind of stuff and that's one of those those scammers

051do right they're the gurus they they let you out a little bit they tell you what to do you fail at it right you don't accomplish so okay we'll not pay twice as much and come and get my more advanced class right that's what these concerts do in the end the icon Stars not able to actually prove anything for the students in the district what they're going to do is very good thoughts of teachers so in conclusion I I enjoy it I appreciate the great speeches that have been given the lofty and soaring words but I'm asking you what are you going to do now what do you propose concrete that the district should do differently besides insulting and complaining about a couple board members thanks [Applause] next up we have samion it's made of

052wire here all right thank you had a good evening board superintendent staff uh tonight I'd like to talk about continual Improvement and specifically things we could do at this board meeting these board meetings tonight A Certain flow we start off with a lot of people as we recognize our students and teachers and then they leave and we do patreon comments and then people leave and then we get to the agenda and then you know that's basically what a skeleton crew by that point and finish off the meeting so um first proven I'd like to suggest came from superintendent himself a couple meetings back uh his comments are at the very end I'd like to applaud what he does with his comments since he's uh come on board you know he does a really good job

053in my mind of highlighting what we're doing well in the district uh things I've never heard about sometimes and also what's coming up inviting people to get involved but that usually comes to a skeleton crew like I said so if you could maybe consider moving those comments up um probably even put them before Patron comments to get the most uh play from them um uh let's see our next recommendation is what what is the purpose of this meeting this is a business meeting uh I've heard the uh current president of the board say this many times hey this is a business meeting you know nobody don't don't Boo and stuff like that so and to this end I think the district does a great job of putting the agenda items up there's a lot of

054documents there a lot of detail I love the Q a responses that have recently been posted to really help us get into and understand some of the things since we directly don't get a chance to ask questions um so there's a lot of stuff with that and I thought the board members who take the time to actually look through that and uh and also to those in the district who take the time to look at that originally had the opportunity for my high school daughter to attend one of these board meetings and uh she was a little shocked at the uh the Patriot Commons period because nothing was really about improving academics uh or really even related to the agenda that followed but you know that that is powerful of course that is typically how

055these these go um so if we want to be serious about our kids education and the proper management of the public resources that this school district manages that we need to be more serious about it I like to borrow best practice from our County Council meetings where comments have to be linked to agenda items you can always have General comments but let's move them to the end to the Skeleton Crew uh many of the people who speak passionately about their social and political agendas do not remain for the rest of this meeting they don't really get involved in the business they don't show a competency of knowledge about the agenda items that come afterwards your time is up [Applause] [Music] okay next up we have fhea okay don't sit down it's up to you Jeremy

056did he work foreign presentation tonight just a couple of new things things are going well but um focus on a little couple of different stuff um so just to kind of let the board know it's something I'm going to talk about enough but we have um you know as the next year comes we're going to have more staff tours up at Frank sum I don't think that's something that we should celebrate and talk about we did some of these last year um talking to Jeff earlier you know I think later in the kind of the spring area to start bringing them around but it's a good building to tour now you don't get muddy and and messy when you go out there so we're trying to evolve the staff and the faculty as much as

057we can along with the students I actually think there's a group of students who are tomorrow if I'm not mistaken so industrial Tech and pltw students will be going out there going to be meeting with us and Wilson kind of looking at the new areas and then also kind of talking about what it's like to be in the construction industry and and how it all works so Essen Wilson does a really good job they have some really good programs for stuff like that so we're trying to kind of mend them all together Francis Automotive so just you know I don't think we celebrate that stuff enough um one of the big things that started is all the site prep for the stadium we kind of talked about that but if you were to go out

058there and go see some of the pictures tonight you'll start to see some of the grading and the sewers we put in I'll kind of show you a little bit of that on the aerial photos but it's exciting you actually can start really seeing where this vegan is going to sit and what the elevations are going to be and stuff like that uh also just kind of I get asked this every once in a while but you know we we work throughout the winter they did a good job getting the building uh weather tight as we call this so these go the roofs on so we'll go ahead and cover everything with plastic we don't have Windows yet we will plastic them all off and they'll run um kind of little torpedo heaters like we

059call them in the buildings and keep it warm 50 degrees for those guys and they'll work right out through the winter taping and painting and doing all the things we need to do so um it was good to get the building enclosed but that's something that'll be happening in the coming months so just some highlights specifically at North brick veneer continues wrapping around the building we'll be talking about breakfast so a long time to come structural steel is getting close to being done some of the big Steels completed they're finishing some of the decking and some of the detail work around the main level in the cafeteria area the mdfp continues throughout all the buildings that'll be going all the way through the next 18 months interior Framing and CMU wall installation she is continuing

060along with painting ceiling grids and then we talked about the same prep for the stadium so here's some pictures um I'm actually going to do this backwards so this is actually what the site looked like in December of 21. um this is just fascinating to me you can see um no student parking lot you can see just concrete walls here no real concrete floor slabs have been poured we still have these detention basins so um and then you go to what it looks like today which is absolutely just fascinating so you know I was talking to a friend the other day who took nine months to build their house and I'm like you know look at this in one year so I mean it is amazing just how much work has gotten done out there

061when you put it in perspective I mean we have a fully enclosed building we have roofs the only area that isn't roofed yet is this little session here but again just going back to where we were last year um you know quite a uh quite a change over the last 12 months um here we see some of the masonry ongoings this is kind of looking at the south end of what's Happening um here we see some of the football lights and Alvin put up some of the um future Stadium again this is the gym area here the gym area and the weight room area kind of looks out over the stadium it's kind of a neat feature of the of the building um this is some of the areas that still remain unfinished you can

062actually see right here how they're vaporing up some of the openings they'll do that to kind of keep the heat inside the building um again this is a bathroom bathroom rough ends but although we talk about mechanical electrical rough ends this is what we're talking about in the background you can see the CMU blocks getting ready to get put up and also some of the temporary lighting um same thing here just pictures of what you know it looks like inside the building uh they're holding on one second Gene for you play here I'm gonna say there's something else I missed the aerial shot on the ship so this is the aerial shot I talked a little bit about the stadium so um if you see this this will actually be one of the future uh

063bathrooms and ticket booths area of the stadium right here it's actually another one that goes over here student parking lot so you start to see kind of the outline of the track here and the big hill so you'll kind of come on there'll be a bit gate here Francis Homer signs you'll come up on the stadium kind of look down over it in this kind of field right here so kind of exciting to start seeing some of that I'll take shape um and what actually is going on so before Jayden's play on the video um we're gonna change it up a little bit tonight we talked about that we're not doing drone tours anymore there's not a ton to see anymore on the outside the changes have kind of we're kind of past that so

064um what SM Wilson has done is actually going to show you a a picture of the blueprint we're going to highlight an area and we're going to actually have them walk you to a hallway so it's kind of a cool different way to do it we'll highlight different areas of the building as you go through the next year but it's going to look a little bit different here so let her play again here's the school they're going to highlight these lower areas here they're kind of showing the blue for instance art rooms and hallways so here we're walking down the hallway this is what it looks like here we have display cases we have classrooms going in on each side ceiling grid going up if you can mix it with Francis how high school is

065this kind of what the lower level of Francis Hall High School looks like it's similar here at Francis Hall North to see how much progress is done with paint on the walls and everything else we're actually walking into an art room so nice natural light in these art rooms they have actually a kiln room back here they'll be Cabinetry casework that actually surrounds all this area I know it makes you dizzy to watch that um here we have the ceiling grid we can see some of the lighting going in and so on and so forth but if you see just how far along some of these areas of the school actually are same room now looking the other way talk about temporary lighting strands that are strung throughout the building but I mean just a

066substantial amount of progress I mean you're you're looking at ceiling tiles and flooring and pretty much those rooms being done so again that Focus here is on these areas of the building just cold that if you can Jamie I know it takes it but it shows you just those areas of some of the areas that are more farther along obviously some of the other areas aren't but the progress is is substantial in those areas and there's just again a lot of good things happening out there and um you know we're all very excited and on schedule last slide I will show you is the financial slide so we still haven't used any of the allowance money um escalation allowances we still have about a million dollars left in that fund that'll probably eventually like I

067said last month roll into contingency and we are right almost at 50 Bill to date which is pretty much exactly where they should be for um where we are on the project so I'd be happy to answer any questions at works thank you any questions comments great yeah uh I'm the manager for basketball North and I get to go like all over the county and all of the St Louis area and see their gyms yeah I'm really looking forward to the new basketball gym at North it's very nice looking I'm also looking forward to the football stadium um don't tell my parents I missed the bus this morning so I had to walk to school thankfully and close enough that I still made it easy with enough time at 30 minutes before my class started

068but I got to walk by the school and I saw that little enclosure you talked about with the uh the new bathroom what about that's gonna do so I'm really looking forward to seeing the new stadium I really like the renderings of it how has that bowl sitting in the end I think that's going to be pretty cool yeah that's that's me I appreciate you saying that and that basketball stadium is going to be state of the art believe me it's going to be very exciting when it is done so okay thank you you didn't hear anything mom and dad [Laughter] any other questions I'm going to put something on you at the Missouri school board for convention Janet was it Patrick that promised the board that they'd make a date that we could go

069tour the building so we'd go one at a time or two but if we could do it and it was dark but then after work for many people yeah or that maybe one not a group of us can go and see the progress of the building we can absolutely get that set up I will have someone reach out and we'll get it we'll get a day on the calendar thank you I think it's a great idea okay I think that's it thank you okay bored I would like a motion to approve the consent agenda for December 15 2022 as presented [Music] all those in favor say aye aye any opposed say no well she cares bored I would like a motion to approve the travel request litcon as presented Mr zigovire Miss English discussion thanks

070Barry uh president Lang for uh removing this for from consent um I just want to thank Dr rompos and team for being Ultra transparent uh on this training and the communication back and forth around it and what the intent is on it um I fully support um reading education I think we we lack more of it um just like one of the patrons that kind of I two have a son that I have a son that's dyslexic and I'd be remiss if I voted for this unfortunately just because the organization promoting it their primary purpose is to promote reading recovery so I would suggest the board take that with Enlighten when pulling information back and also would suggest if we haven't already I'm looking for independent third parties the compared information with as well um

071but I just want I want to say that this I I fully support reading I fully support our reading teachers video a phenomenal good job we're trying to do the best they can however the reading recovery program and it's helping the organization that supports it I just can't can't support for for what I do is damage to my to my son and things that we still struggle with from the from the habits that we're taught in that program can you elaborate board any other questions guys I have one it seems to me like this was voted on once before we already voted on this um and I misunderstanding something and I thought when we voted on it why is it coming I thought it was a 7-0 vote that we approved this but why is

072it coming back to us I'm really confused sure the uh it did come to the October board meeting we did vote and prove it the hotel when the traveler went to book her hotel the hotel was booked and so she had painted a different Hotel the other hotels in the area were more expensive or they were further away which would have added travel daily Ubers and things like that and so the cost of the travel increases and when the cost of the travel increases by uh 10 we have to bring the request back to the board so it's really about the change in price that cost us to bring it back to so it was approved in October okay I really got there for a minute I was losing it okay thanks I just wanna

073say one thing too I I too have a daughter who is dyslexic um and she's excelled through everything every support that she's had whether it was reading recovery and apply all of the things so Dr Roberts you mentioned in an email to the board just a couple days ago that you're taking a curriculum team you've been working on our multi-tier system supports systems of supports and looking at them into all of the supports that we do and you've been researching all of them and do we plan on having a work session over the next couple months in regards to all of that is that correct that is accurate I just I'd remind everyone we have a pre-k through 12 literacy program in the district it's a maybe the most important work that we do with

074our students we have core instruction that all of our students receive in a general education classrooms we provide interventions for students when they're identified as needing a first level of support when they might be struggling for a variety of reasons in the classroom and then we have what we call tier three or an opportunity when we have to provide students with explicit additional instruction to help them reading is one option we offer in mathematics and other areas as well and so we're always looking through our curriculum revision process and our resource adoption process to make sure that we're using resources and programs that we believe best meet the needs of our students looking at current research existing research old research the programs that we have are they best meeting our student needs and so part

075of that is we have a cycle and a process for looking at the core General curriculum we're also looking as our student needs change and what intervention materials resources and other small group interventions that we might provide our team has has been working the board approved last year utilizing some of our Esser funding to look at the multi-tiered systems of support and how we can better serve some of our students reading recovery right now is one of the main programs we use for students at that level we recognize there might be other programs that could also support our students and we look when we look at a limited number of Staffing that we have within the district that we can't always add to we want to serve as many students as possible and the number

076of our students with some instructional needs is changing so what other programs might allow us to do that so it's something that has been being worked on all this semester with our instructional team focused on literacy looking at bringing some of those recommendations to you this spring that doesn't mean we're talking about changing our literacy program drastically I'm not encouraging people to come up and Advocate that doesn't necessarily need to happen we're always just looking at the resources that we're using adding to them supplementing what we have bringing additional resources so that was already in place and some of the recent conversations and questions lend itself to sharing that information and we just thought a workshop with the board to share some of that not only um specifically around tier three intervention but also just

077our process in general around curriculum adoption revision that would be a good opportunity to share that so we'll look at doing that in January or February at a time that works for the board I also recall past meetings over the past couple of years that people have spoken about reading recovery I think there might have been even some uh topics over that that were brought forth to recommendation not entirely sure but uh in regards to that I remember them being positive as far as reading recovery goes but what I hear you saying and in conjunction with the stuff that I've heard in previous meetings is that maybe reading recovery isn't a one size fits all but it does help some students yeah the her purpose of attending the conference is really to expand her knowledge

078base so she is I put her up against anybody in terms of reading recovery and her role this year has expanded to K-12 and so she's attending asking to attend this to learn about she's signed up for some dyslexia sessions she wants to learn more about bilingual Learners she's at a three-day dyslexic dyslexia training this week she signed up for letters training in January and so this is just one stop in her professional development Journey this year to expand her repertoire so that we have lots of tools for the wide range of students in K-12 that we're working to serve and support so what I'm hearing is not every student's exactly the same thing I need some different correct it's not in place of it's in addition to perfect thank you [Music] so I'm going

079to go back a few years uh probably 2015 or 2016 I think the district would make a recommendation to do away with breeding recovery when I was newer on the board and we had a bunch of people speaking out my own kids even helped them and the board decided to keep reading recover um so I know this is all about the travel part so I just I think there's some backstory if we searched the archives and see how it was then if we're talking about the reading recovery itself I know this is strictly a little bit off topic because this is about to travel but just for public knowledge anyone else it's great okay so I think I remember I've seen this a few times there's a triangle right and you have different tiers in

080the triangle and the idea is there's people who are on track people who are a little bit behind people are more behind people students are a lot farther behind correct and the idea is to we'll take a different approach for students depending on where they're at and with the hope of catching them up so they're on level with everybody else right yeah so with this conference attending it the hope is that perhaps new strategies can be learned that can help at different levels of that tier for students who are at different levels right now as I understand with these conferences there's a main session and then there's a breakout where there might be three and then there might be like nine and another one that they want several hours and the attendant would go to

081these ones and sometimes some people don't like what's in a given one right would it be possible for the district to save which sessions were attended by the attendant so that people could know what the district might be looking at moving forward with yeah I would say that really we trust our teachers our Educators to make the decision of where they want to go what they need to learn it's really different for everybody um they usually work with their supervisor to make sure that what they're learning is on course and then when they come back there's usually some type of sharing so this person leads a group of Staff in our district and so she would take the learning that she has and she would apply it in her daily work okay and I see

082a lot on the district website they post these things and it's celebrating stuff perhaps that could be one of the things they post you know our director of this department wouldn't attended there I'm here maybe describe what was at that session that they attended because there's a lot of different things at these and it could focus on so that people understand that a lot of the that they can know what conferences are being attended what might be taught at the application okay oh just a quick comment about this but I think some of the objection to reading recovery especially lately is uh there's certainly a lot of uh experience that families in this District had with reading recovery it personally based on what I've read and I don't claim to be an expert it's just

083that the strategy is taught in Reading recovery are do more harm than good overall so there may be some immediate results um but if you look a couple years down the road there's at least one study that I know of that Tesla shows it down wrote those that intervention doesn't hold up that's a this this person going is not a teacher it's a Content leader um that person's role is to be an expert that person wants to be an expert to understand all the research at least once if it's academic in nature whether I personally agree with it or not um that's fine by me if it's a research-based thing so yes reading recovery at least from what I've read is uh isn't isn't the best but uh for all we know they're going to

084show us some new research here in January 2023. so that's uh that's my thoughts on it it's academic in nature there is some other training letter string specifically that I'm pleased this person is attending we approved a couple of months ago that's all I have on anyone else okay all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed say no no she cares four and like a motion to approve the November monthly financial report to ask presented Mr Lynn and Mr Lynn all those in favor say aye all right any opposed say no promotion carries bored I don't like a motion to approve the purchases over 7 500 as presented [Music] the Bertrand any discussion award all those in favor say aye aye media post say no motion carries born I like an emotions

085here proves that a purchase is over 7 500 for Newsela as presented Sterling and miss stiglich discussion thank you for pulling this one out for a separate vote here uh this is uh for the public who may not have seen it this is a request to purchase a trial subscription to a service that uh reports to provide material news articles things of that nature to middle school and high school students but the material is differentiated by reading level for middle school and high school students I think this this goes back to the bigger issue of reading reading an elementary school but I'll I'll leave that aside for now the cost of this is in the thirty thousand dollar range right now for the um the tryout that we're approving for the next several months if

086it's successful presumably we would be asked to provide it or to handle that next year and the full cost of this for a year if we were to pay the full year rate is is on the order of 164 000 and this is online access to news articles for middle school and high school students yeah and the the kicker here that it's it's differentiated by reading level I have no doubt that some students may need this but I I question whether we needed for we have to pay for every student in every Middle School in every high school because certainly most students probably don't need this um the the memo that we're approving specifically talks about uh struggling Learners are struggling students something of that nature um but we're not approving it up a subscription

087for those students we're approving for everyone and we're paying for everyone and that's um I I can't I can't have good faith support that with our tax dollars buying something I don't think we would need for everyone we were big enough to approve it for a segment of students or a smaller percentage that would be another conversation um but this seems like a little bit Overkill and yet another another online resource that our technology department has to implement and support and maintain and uh I don't foreign is this a service for students or our teachers so it's a tool for teachers where they can go online and they can pull content related informational text at a variety of less eye levels so it'll allow us to level up level down whatever student needs on a

088specific topic the pilot the trial that we want to run is we would be purchasing the ELA the science and the social studies packages content articles and then we want to monitor it while we're piloting it or doing the trial in the song in the spring semester just to see which grade levels use it what content areas use it uh to Mr Cook's point we are looking at a subscription for every student in the building that's how the company prices it out and that'll allow every teacher in each building access to it so even though we're we're purchasing the ELA science and social studies content if uh a health teacher wants to pull an article from the science content to use in their health class they would have access to do that and so the

089teachers are able to pull the Articles and then they're able to push it out to the students through their canvas courses so it's a an amazing phenomenal resource for our teachers that provides them quick access to vetted tax that that we are not providing them right now and so it's a huge Time Saver a huge resource I was within Eli teacher yesterday and she was truly giddy about the idea that she would be able to get her hands on this resource and have that high quality literature to be able to use in our classroom so it fills a gap that we currently have in terms of what we're able to provide for informational text and again the in the questions I think one of the questions was how much would it cost and we gave

090you by every level by every concept what it would cost and we don't know that we would necessarily come back and ask for all of that we want to try it out in the spring semester and look at the analytics and figure out does Middle School use it does High School use it do some contents use it more than others and we just don't know we need to try it and see how helpful people think it is get some feedback from our teachers our students so that's what we're asking for and just to be clear Mr cook I think you mentioned it but the teacher can go in and you know the topic is automotives something another they can search you know initially to find articles that are at grade level that would work for

09180 of the students 90 of the students in the classroom but then also find topic um articles on the exact same topic that might be at Alexa level for the middle range student and that small group in extra support so all students would actually benefit and use the resources that are found through the site not just a small group of students so I have a question so what I'm hearing you say then is that you will be collecting data to see who's using it who's not where it's being used and in the event we decide to go what you will bring that data back to the board so that if we do have to spend the money then we'll know exactly what it is that we're purchasing and for who sure we would bring it

092back to your purchase now next okay whatever okay we can include some of them so this is just a trial for the next semester got it thank you foreign commentary before this is looking as a supplemental to things like speech to text or text to speeches text to speech um for those kids that need those extra supports um number one I'll be honest I don't know about accessibility that's just like another supplement for for accessibility trying to trying to bring that in and give them different options yeah uh number two is do we pick this particular resources for any reason have we looked at other organizations that provide the same kind of thing or is this just pretty early trial so you've this kind of resource would work for us it's a resource that many

093of our teachers have used the free version of with a lot of success and knowing the power that it is provided with those the the additional access that our teachers will have we think will increase access to informational text and actually help improve reading across all contents um and so we're just really hoping that this is an additional tool to support breeding a specifically informational text with their students it's not a new resource I can tell you when I was in the classroom I used the free version of it and I loved it so much that I used my personal friends to buy a subscription for multiple years to use it as a resource with my students so I can only imagine how much it's evolved and improved it's been happening since I've been in

094the classroom so I'm sure it's phenomenal now and um fully support but I guess my final account is if it's something we want to move forward with maybe let's go through the process of looking at these other providers for similar similar items that make sure we're getting the best cost out of it sure thanks anything else bored okay all's in favor say aye aye any opposed say no no who cares like a motion to approve but a purchase was sent over 7 500 for worldwide technology as presented Mr zigmeyer and then Mr cook I will be abstaining from this purchase totally different department all right all those in favor say aye aye any opposed so you know no she carries border like a motion to approve the course description guide as presented Mr Bertrand Lane

095foreign Dr Buckman is there anything you need to add to this or is it pretty straightforward here it's pretty straightforward they're all uploaded and then there's a document included that includes the revisions that were made this year so no significant changes forward any questions comments okay all is in favor say aye aye aye any opposed say no motion carries bored I'm like a motion to approve the summer school proposal as presented second Mr Lang and Mr Bertrand Miss Dr Buckman yeah I'd like to invite Dr lemmers and Dr Garland uh to come on Dr Lambert is our director of secondary education and Dr Garland is our director of Elementary education and so last month we were able to review the board report that was our our summary of Summer School from Summer of 22 and

096these folks are with us tonight we put a lot of work together to the proposal for our programming for summer of 23. our next steps after this would be to start our hiring process and begin to prepare a registration in the next couple months so we'll let them talk a little bit hello Board of Education good to see you again um it's our pleasure today to present to you the our proposal for the summer school program for summer 2023. um what you see in front of you here are the programs that we're hoping to run that were proposing running at each of the three levels to talk a little bit about elementary yeah at elementary the programming is going to be relatively relatively the same as it has been in the past we're going to

097offer the elementary summer success program we're going to offer the kindergarten summer success program which is a transition program for our incoming kindergartners and we're also going to offer our four enrichment camps stem robotics Studio Art and Sports and Fitness and then at the middle school level and at the high school level we're running largely the same camps the same programs that we've run over the last several years with one exception at the middle school level we had a staff member who has a passion to offer a theater camp and one of the the key determining factors and whether or not we can run a camp in the summer is can we find a staff to run it so a lot in a lot of ways in the past it goes the other way we

098have an idea oh maybe we can find somebody to run it in this case there's a staff member saying can I please run something like this and really at that point yes we absolutely want to do that we want to provide that opportunity to our kids so we're going to be um doing Middle School summer success the stem summer program at Camp all those other camps with the addition of that theater camp at the middle school level I'm gonna take just a minute just to highlight some of the changes of Elementary so this year um we are proposing to host summer school at Becky David and Warren and they will host our four-week summer success program um this year we're proposing half day programming offering both AM and PM sessions that will be solely focused

099on reading intervention um we're doing this in an effort to be able to serve more students and to attract more fhsd staff to teach our summer programming with this structure we'll be able to serve twice as many students if we as we've been able to serve in the past while still providing a very rich focused and targeted literacy intervention time for our students this proposal also will afford our staff which we're hoping will attract more to opt to teach maybe just an AM session maybe just a PM session or if they desire they can teach both um we are also proposing to run our four enrichment camps um all four camps all four weeks um we found that logistically it works better to host that at a separate site so we're proposing to host our

100camps at Cosley Elementary which will also be one of our Consolidated vacation Station sites so all of our vs students will also have the opportunity to participate in camps should their parents wish to sign them up for our camps and as you might remember in the past our camps are also half day programs I'll turn it over Luke to talk a little bit about middle and I at the middle school level we run a couple of different programs the first being the summer success program which is designed to assist students who data is showing that they're falling a little bit behind with reading and math and so we invite them into the program and we make try to make the day a little bit more enjoyable than just reading in math so they we try

101to keep up their physical fitness by giving them access to a PE course and offering some elective courses in there one thing you're going to notice we are consolidating we're proposing consolidating sites for Middle School and High School this year hosting it all at Francis Howell High School there's a couple of reasons for that we have process work happening at the other two High School sites so it has to be at France style high school again this year but then in addition by consolidating sites it places less strain on the overall organization with regard to Transportation with regard to custodial facilities maintenance it allows for another building to get through the center scrub um the annual summer scrub that we do every summer to get our campuses ready for the following school year so we're

102going to be hosting the Middle School summer success and enrichment camps at Francis hop high school and the high school program is also going to be at Francis olive High School this year um and so on the enrichment camps we've already talked about we're still going to run the stem Camp the app Camp those who are always very popular the biomedical science camp is always very popular and we're very hopeful about the theater Camp again this year and they will all happen at the same in the same time frame as the Middle School summer success class again this year also to place less strain on the overall organization to try to have everything done before July happens um and then at the high school level uh we will we will again run our credit recovery

103program for students who need to recover credits from classes that they've failed in the past uh we're offering in person only again this year um students will have the opportunity to earn up to a full credit so they can take two classes one 10-day session represents one semester and then the next 10-day session represents a second semester class and then in credit advancement again at Francis Hall High School it's mostly in person but for several years we've run health and personal uh personal finance online where kids have to come in here and there but it's mostly done online students can also take a full credit so a class in the morning a class in the afternoon over the course of 20 days to be able to work ahead you normally for the purpose of opening

104up spots in their schedule to take other classes during the school year please can't remember this time um and then on the budget side we have a long history of running our summer school program in the black in our school district for several years it contributes to the bottom line for our overall budget so we are projecting a revenue over expenses for this year of 7 721 we always run a very conservative budget for our summer program um and you know we are anticipating a slight increase in the transportation costs uh given you know fuel increases we don't know what they're going to look like over the summer so we're budgeting for an increasing Fuel and transportation costs even though we are consolidating sites at the high school we should have seen increase in cost

105of elementary with one of two different sessions so putting all of that together we are projecting uh coming in in the coming out in the black for summer school again this year and historic directly we will project somewhere in the five to ten thousand dollars of surplus and we end up being in the 60 to 70 sometimes over a hundred thousand dollars in Surplus and we have every expectation that that should happen in this year so with that we like to open it up to any questions I have one you mentioned Transportation a couple times do we transfer for all the camps urges for the reading recovery at the camps as at a parent transport or is how does that work at the elementary level we only provide transportation for our elementary summer success program

106and our kindergarten summer success program camps parents provide transportation and it's a similar story at secondary level so the students who are going for some success at the middle school level and for credit recovery we offer Transportation if they can make it work in their schedule for the credit recovery will make it work but you might have a student that's only doing a morning session so if they ride the bus in the morning they got nothing to do in the afternoon but if they're taking two classes a morning or an afternoon class they can so you mentioned the increase cost I'm thinking the cost transferring somebody from the North Area down to Francis Hall High School that had been taken into consideration also yes okay thank you um is it still is it the case

107that for transportation again middle school and high school students would be bossed on the same bus yeah that that is something that we're we're going to be implementing this year yes uh I think we we mentioned a lot of the comments during academic advisory I know we wrote them all down I presume you guys read them but uh that was just a concern so maybe maybe consider a bus monitor I don't know if we would need that but there's some things are middle a fifth grader writing with a 11th grader yeah for sure that is something that we consider we as we plan for uh the summer session we have regular meetings scheduled with our transportation folks we keep an eye on budget that is something that we can consider for sure we also know

108that there are school districts around the state and in our region who had a long history of students at the middle school level even in some places in our state it's High School uh and Elementary kid it was running on the same bus but this would be our first experience doing that yeah that monitors is something that we we can consider we talked about Middle School to G or is it going to be half day programming or full day programming Middle School is full day full day for everybody that's in the summer success program yes it's a full day so the camps are the the camps it depends on them it depends on the camp so some of the camps uh run for a short amount of time five days or so but yeah they

109are typically full day for a short window like a 10-day window or a five-day window depends thank you so we know the camps usually fill up uh pretty quick there's a waiting list so when do and how do people sign up the registration for camps um I'm gonna give you the exact date maybe in a follow-up email but we'll usually start the camps I believe it's around April um we'll start enrolling for our elementary summer success program probably mid mid February to the very beginning of March and it basically with Elementary you're right it's a high demand that's one of the reasons why we trans transition to a half day program so that we could offer that opportunity for more families and more students um so we take the registrations as they come and then

110we fill the registrations on a lottery system and then we develop wait lists from that also and last year we were able to get several families who you know changed Minds plans change whatnot we were able to fill some of those spots with families on our wait list any other questions or comments board you want to open real quick question so you showed Alex neutral even maybe all the top Plus what's the constraint of expanding it even further if we have a waitlist sure um we are one of our biggest limiting factors uh with our all of our summer offerings is our ability to stash the programs so every over the past several years it's become harder and harder to staff the programs we do open up our we open it up with a preference

111toward our internal staff but every year we have programs that we have to hire folks from outside of the district to staff some of the programs so really we'll offer as many programs as we can or as many sections of it as we can staff um and so that's that's something that is is that is the limiting factor for what we're able to offer in the in a summer session just a quick data piece about three years ago just for a certified position so for our teaching positions I believe we had around 170 applicants and I believe last year we had 120. so every year we're seeing a decrease in the amount of our certified staff within District that are applying to teach summer school so it's been a challenge for the last three years

112to just staff the programming that we have Luke and I both have a desire to grow it especially on that enrichment side of it because there's a lot of opportunity and we do collect money from the state we we are able to claim that and so there is a desire to expand we just need to get to a better place first happy Grant uh just a highlight I think a lot of high school students don't realize how many classes are available for credit advancement over the summer what ones do you think there I know a lot of people do health and personal finance I've done both of those online but what other classes are offered uh in person over the summer for high scores for creditors for credit advancement uh you'll have health your personal

113finance there are a couple of PE offerings um Computer Applications can't remember the specific title of it and then there's also an ACT prep course that is uh part of that as well normally the ACT prep we run a couple of different versions where they take just a few days of it in order to prepare for the June test but this year we're able the way the testing the national test dates have worked out they're able to take the entire thing and just another idea with the Staffing shortages these are only about 25 day sessions where I can see has District ever thought about reaching out to like over our really well like former teachers who substitute for the district and seeing if they'd be willing to do a uh a summer school course or

114yeah I mean it would be open to them it would be open because I know there's a lot of Subs especially at North I think we get a lot of Great Subs and they really do enjoy teaching I think a lot of them would be open to something like that so thank you are we getting this application thank you I do have a couple questions in regards to not a couple in regards to Staffing do we know why it's hard to stop I know I have a couple friends who loved it and then when our school year got a little bit longer they missed that little break so they didn't apply to be teachers is there common themes maybe about why we got yeah the feedback that we get um the job of an educator

115is not getting easier it is only getting harder and over the last few years it's been especially difficult with the um you know with the what happened with coven um you know during the we have so many sub shortages that throughout the school year many teachers appears to be able to sub so that we can still have school and by the end of the year they're getting to a point where they just need that break they need that break mentally in order to recharge for the following year that's the biggest feedback that we that we have got it I will tell you I met recently with um some of my counterparts in other districts strictly just to talk about summer school and and that was a part of the conversation and other districts are experiencing

116the same the same thing um I was pretty proud to sit in that meeting because we offer a very way more robust program than any of our surrounding districts and we are we are making it work each year so I'm proud of the work that we're putting into it and I'm proud of the the leadership and the principles that we hire to help us do it I think because they make it an enjoyable environment we are still able to recruit people we've also done Market comparison on what we pay for summer school and we are very comparable if not a little bit higher than some of our Benchmark districts as well so I we just really think it's attributed to what Luke shared foreign [Music] fiscal year 22 financial statements independent audience report and supplementary

117information as presented a sandwich Dr Hawk we're excited to have our auditor here to share everything with us uh we have Christina Jacqueline available to review our audit results thank you we have Christina here to review our audit results and and give us an update on how that process went this is a particularly interesting year year for us with our switch from an accrual basis to a cash basis of a county it provided its own unique uh challenges through the auditing process resulting in that need for some additional time with our Auditors we're very appreciative that they put in some extra overtime over the holidays and uh we are able to meet the deadline by December 31st that the sets that the state sets for having our audit completed and uploaded for deci um just

118for the public something interesting to know with the new M6 requirements uh if our audit is ever linked it costs us six points on our future accreditation efforts so they have tied turning our paperwork in on time to some of those accreditation and so that makes it a really big deal six points could make a big deal in that process so take it away all right good evening board um as thank you for the opportunity to briefly present the results of the 2022 annual audit and the related reports to you this evening as mentioned my name is Christina Jacqueline and I am the senior Assurance services manager with Showalter and jagori this is our third year performing the audit for the Francis House School District I believe you were previously provided with a PDF copies

119of the reports that we issued these reports include the financial statements which include required state and federal program reporting the report to those charged governance and the report on internal control after some brief comments I would be more than happy to answer any questions that the board may have the first report relates to the financial statements prepared by Management on the modified Cash basis of accounting in which we provided an unmodified opinion on page one this means that in our opinion the financial statements are freely presented in all material respects in Conformity with the modified Cash basis of accounting this is otherwise known as a clean opinion in the current year there are two emphasis of matter paragraphs included in the audit opinion the first drop the reader's attention to the basis of accounting of

120modified cash which is a basis of accounting other than those generally accepted in the United States as this was a change made in the current year there is further discussion of the effect of this change on page 13. the second emphasis of matter paragraph indicates the new accounting guidance Gatsby statement number 87 regarding leases was implemented in the current year as applicable to the modified Cash basis of accounting with regards to the required federal and state reporting in the current year two Federal programs were required to be tested as major they were the education stabilization fund otherwise known as Esser and the Child Nutrition program during the course of our testing we noted no material instances of non-compliance that we are required to report or any matters involving internal control that we consider to be

121material weaknesses or significant deficiencies to either of these programs the second report we issued is a report to those charged with governance and is a required communication from Auditors at the conclusion of an audit this report includes various items with the more significant of them being a reference to the implementation of new guidance regarding leases whether or not there were any material corrected in the statements or any uncorrected misstatements identified during the course of the audit it also mentions the emphasis of matter paragraph and the opinion regarding the basis of accounting as discussed earlier and it discusses the procedures applied to the related supplementary and other information contained in audited financial statements we have also issued a report on internal control in the current year it's important to note that we did not identify any

122items that we classify as material weaknesses or significant deficiencies the items we have included in this report are observations and related recommendations for consideration the report also includes a section that provides a status of priority recommendations again these are classified as other comments and do not appear to be addicted of significant deficiencies or material weaknesses we would like to thank Dr Hawk and her staff in the district for all their assistance provided to us during the audit and at this time I am happy to answer any questions the board may have board any questions or comments nope okay thank you thank you okay all those in favor say aye aye any opposed say no she cares so there's a couple information only policies first readings we will move on to miss Simkins for our stopping

123plan thanks Mary Gene do you have um a clicker that you can advance size or do I need to get that dance for me we can we can get it to you oh okay thank you you're so sweet thank you friend okay well board thank you for giving me the opportunity to present to you the 2023-2024 Staffing plan this is a process that we follow of each and every school year executive cabinet begins to have conversations about the plan in early October Mr Delaney our director of human resources and I then begin to meet with each district administrator as we develop an initial Staffing plan that is interviewed and Modified by our district leadership team and then the model is shared and discussed with the other groups that you see listed on the screen Our

124intention this year was to present to you a status quo Staffing plan we are very mindful of the resources that are available to us in the district and with the labor shortages that we're experiencing um inflation we feel it is very important that we have resources available as we enter into negotiations to consider salaries and so it was very important to us that that was kind of our goal is our goal um and so what that meant for us as a as a staffing plan is to look for ways to not have an impact in our salary budget by adding positions which is has been difficult um each year when we bring the plan to you we request contingency Staffing these additional positions are placed on hold and only used as necessary as we go

125through the planning for the new school year for example if enrollment in a certain building is higher than expected we'll utilize this contingency Staffing to quickly hire an additional position without waiting for the next board meeting for approval in some cases small amounts of contingency are also used when we need just an additional section of science or we need to ask a teacher to work through their plan to cover an additional section to keep class sizes lower so that helps us to quickly address any needs that come up through the plan any staffing any contingency Staffing that is used in the current school year that is a position that needs to carry over to the next school year is shown as an ad in the plan um so it isn't it the contingency Staffing isn't

126just absorbed it is pulled out and the position is asked to uh be approved to continue and so any staffing that we utilize throughout the year is pulled out that way and we examine the use of contingency throughout the school year very very closely we ask for a limited number of Staffing contingency Staffing ftes and to really try to use that only in those very high need areas where it's a necessity foreign so I'll talk with you just a little bit about the certified big ideas for our staffing plan again every effort has been made to keep Staffing level across the district it's important for you to know that as Mark and I attended meetings in every building we created a very long list of needs that our administrators would like for us to address

127meeting the needs of our students takes Staffing we are a people intense business and so when we limit that resource for our buildings it becomes more difficult for them to do their work in every building we heard requests for additional certified Staffing or additional support staff positions whether it was to reduce class sizes offer additional interventions maybe just increase support because of behaviors and supervision because of behaviors and I think in every area and across our district at every level our people are feeling stressed and overwhelmed and and having some relief in that way would have been helpful but again it was important for us to present a plan that did not cost ad costs to the district's salary budget so when we looked at how to address the most significant needs we heard we

128really just reallocated Staffing classroom Physicians were moved from one building to another based on changes in your enrollment and where possible we try to remove classroom teaching positions to create special education teacher positions to support the increasing needs that we're seeing across our buildings um and so you'll see that in the plan we eliminate Fiverr we allocate I should say five classroom teaching positions at the elementary level um and some paraprofessional positions in order to create the special education Staffing positions that we need so as we get to the certified side excuse me the support staff side you'll see there are some paraprofessional positions that are being reduced to account for the 3.5 FTE that you see on the screen that is that we are suggesting to be added so that we stay neutral in

129the staff and plan over the reason for the reduction in paraprofessional positions is one um we need those teaching positions two it has become very difficult to fill our paraprofessional roles and so we feel that if we look at how we do our work a little differently we might be able to open up those positions to a different candidate pool it has been successful over the last couple of years as we've struggled to find paraprofessionals we have collapsed three vacancies um as we get into October November and December and utilize those three paraprofessional vacancies to post for a special education teacher and sometimes that has helped us find a candidate and as well as relieve some of the stress in the building it's not ideal we needed three different people to be in three different

130places that's why those paraprofessional positions were there but in the labor shortage that we have and the struggles that we find this allowed us to provide some relief in the building so you'll see that happening throughout this plan as well our reading Staffing across the district remains status quo our academic team will review the data in late January and if we need to reallocate reading Staffing across our Middle High Schools elementary schools we'll move that Staffing once we have that data available to us um these are the the slide shows the average class sizes at the elementary level that will result from this plan the m6 desirable and maximum numbers are there for you just so you can kind of compare to what we're proposing we always aim for that midpoint or maybe just slightly

131above as we're watching the sections and that has increased over the course of years as we've done Staffing plan in years past we've tried to say in the middle of the desirable and midpoint and we have been inching up our class sizes to midpoint or a little bit above the averages that you see here on the screen are look fantastic but they are averages we will have a range of class sizes across the district and so if our projected enrollment comes through as is and the plan stays as it is you will see kindergarten class A couple of kindergarten classes at 22. second grade at 23. third grade at 25 five and even a fifth grade section or two at 28. so watching those sections will be important and that's where that contingency Staffing will

132come in handy if we see that that enrollment increases will be able to act uh react quickly for those positions um at the middle and high school level it is very difficult to determine or predict class sizes at this point so we create a staffing plan based on classroom teacher to student ratio and this plan sets an average student to classroom teacher ratio at Middle School at 21.72 in high school at 23.58 the calculation does not take into consideration that teachers take a plan time nor does it take into consideration that students might be placed in Special Services virtual learning early college classes things of that nature but again actual class sizes can't be projected at this point and we wait for student enrollment through our coursework and then create a master schedule based on

133student need and what the FTE is provided to each school and that's what we'll kind of determine what those class sizes look like and again contingency will come and play if a building needs a specific section added we can do that to alleviate some of that stress so the staffing has provided each building based on this ratio calculation and our building principles do a great job they create a master schedule and then a staffing plan that fits the needs of students and stays within our Desi class size guidelines um and so again we'll level that out and work with our principals as as we need to at the Early Childhood level there is not a lot of of change this is a small change but there is some significant reasons behind it there is a

134need for additional special education student availability in our opticated off to kindergarten program in one of our buildings in May of 2022 we increased the number of special education students in each class so while our goal is to have six students per class we had classes with eight or nine special education students in the off to kindergarten program and with the number of students that are currently being tested for Early Childhood special education we're we're worried this is a trend that is going to continue and the number will rise per class so our proposal is to dissolve one tuition only class uh the students that are enrolled in that class would be dispersed into small group classrooms to serve as peer models currently there are little to no care models in our early childhood special

135education classes in this building in the off to kindergarten class the increase in the early childhood special education FTE will not impact our early childhood budget yet the elimination of the tuition-based position will reduce the overhead the salary and the benefits that are currently impacting our early childhood budget so dissolving this tuition only class will afford the program opportunity to look at either maintaining our tuition or possibly even reducing tuition for our families as well as supporting the needs and of the students that that need that class we'll move over to support staff um it's important to kind of share with you if you look at the old plan and then look at where we are now we've made some significant changes in our support staff Staffing throughout this school year and so this is

136just to remind you of some of the things that have happened you may remember that we added 15.2 ftes For Recess pairs we added back those 40 positions after negotiations to support our teachers at the elementary level we also brought to you a request to add five additional permanent substitutes that's a 4.27 FTE in our plan we've made some modifications throughout the year when additional nursing hours were needed we eliminated a pair of professional physician you'll also remember that we reduced 18 custodial positions when we were looking for ways to increase the salary of our custodians to meet the labor and the demands of that market and then over the course of the Year 1.83 contingency ftes were utilized just in various different places throughout the school year and so taking all of that into

137consideration any positions that needed to carry over into the plan for next year were incorporated as well and so what we proposed for this year on on support staff are going into the 23 24 school year we will look to add an HAC technician to support some of the work that is happening through our our district and hopefully reduce some of our dependency on outside organizations to do that work we're also looking at adding one bus monitor position for a need there the 8.26 positions the paraprofessionals we talked about that supporting those certified positions that you saw earlier in the plan and then we are looking to reduce bus driver positions as those routes have been reduced and those positions are vacant so no one is losing a position in this plan um the 0.5

138position at grounds has been something that we have had vacant for several years it's just not a position we've been able to recruit and fill and then with cafeteria AIDS this is really a reduction in the hours that they're working each day when we eliminated the recess pair of position we increased the daily hours of our cafeteria aids to provide some support to our elementary buildings and now that the recessed para position is back we're scaling back those cafeteria eight hours to to what they originally were and we felt like that was a late change this year and didn't want to ask our buildings to change their Master schedules so they've had some time to prepare for that um and then we're reallocating some Transportation Staffing just to meet their current needs um moving some

139FTE from one position to another to support support the needs there again in the plan there is no person that is losing their job these positions are vacant if they're being reduced we have over 40 30 to 40 paraprofessional positions open at a time and so reducing by 14 is not going to impact an individual they are vacant positions uh that will happen on the tuition-based side there is a small increase proposed for a parent educator Staffing this is to support our families who are enrolling in the program with their very Young Learners before they come to the preschool setting the program is is refunded by the number of visits that they provide and so we feel that the FTE that we're asking for here will be reimbursed by the visits that are completed through

140the state of Missouri and so overall um you'll see in the plan it's a 3.5 FTE Edition on the certified side that is being supported by the reduction in salary on the support staff side 8.26 ftes there um and then the small reduction on the Early Childhood side and the small addition for the parent educator site really there we do not anticipate that any changes in this plan will have any major impact on our overall salary budget and so uh as directed and as our goal is to just present the status quo Staffing plan to you again to protect those resources for later happy to answer any questions that you might have board in comments or questions just to reiterate the reductions mentioned there are no bodies in those positions correct correct they will all

141be vacant positions okay oh Mr ziggermeyer I'm sorry anybody spoke briefly to it but uh can you just give it a little bit of a background how you get to these numbers so who you communicate with how you kind of formulate that information sure so each each year mark and I spend time we visit each building we visit each director each manager that is responsible for leading out work in Francis Howell talk with them about the needs that they're seeing in their building the needs of their students what they're hearing from staff um I will tell you sometimes it is um one of the hardest parts of our job because we hear the needs that are in each and every building we create that list every year and we haven't been able to address many

142of them for the last couple of years because we've continued to present a status post affle plan to protect those resources um so we just we listen um and then as we go through we we ask for those projected enrollment numbers from our capacity team and then just really start playing to in the last couple of years rob Peter Peter to PayPal and move the Staffing and and reallocate Staffing to try to meet the most pressing need that we hear there are a number of needs that we hear year after year that we haven't been able to address um we start with the FTE that we have each year approved by the board and then just reallocate that um so that's what we do thank you anything else bored okay thank you thanks Mary I'll

143bring this back to you in January for approval um if you have any questions in the meantime please just let me know okay thank you next up we have superintendent comments thank you president Lang this might be the best crowd we've had president comments tomorrow thank you Mr Young so board I don't personally get to know all of our student board reps um I have gotten to know Mr Killen a bit over the last couple of years and so I really want to recognize his level of preparedness for tonight and his passion for this you can really tell that he has an interest in this work in civic duty and that's been enjoyable tonight I also point out he is very active on Twitter and something that I respect about him is that while he

144is clearly an active and accomplished Francis Hollow North student he retweets and celebrates stuff from every single one of our high schools and our other buildings and that is great um also I will add as we approach the possibility of inclement weather that he actively posts about snow days any such announcements come from me or Communications not from gratitude we held our second round table on November 26th the topic was career in college readiness we had a crowd was a little bit bigger than our first event Katie Vargas our College and Career specialist came and shared data from regional and local on the job market and the trends and what we're seeing she also shared District data about the current programs and opportunities that we offer we then engage in conversations with the patrons who

145are there I'm really thinking about the hopes for our students as they leave Francis Howell we want them to be able to do what information our students and families need in order to make decisions about post-secondary opportunities and then how do we reduce stigma around non-college opportunities for students so there's a lot of great information that was gathered that night it'll be used as we develop action plans for next year it will also be a part of the process that Francis Howell will go through in creating the um profile of a graduate which is part of our current strategic plan work and we received a lot of positive feedback from attendees at the event and we will send be sending out information pretty soon about a January event coming up last weekend our Alternative Learning

146Department held its annual community resource fair at France style High School this is a special event that connects our families with a variety of resources that are available throughout the community it was the biggest event that we've had in the past 11 years with more than 20 vendors there and several hundred attendees so thank you to everyone who made that a success and participated I want to share that our Communications Department has been working incredibly hard on an updated and redesigned District website on December 29th if everything goes well that will go live so we visit either the district site or the School site you will see changes by switching the provider and updating it we're able to create a more mobile-friendly website that you'll be able to access information more easily on your phones

147your iPhones your tablets or any other type of device Miss Simkins was speaking to some of the challenges we have around Staffing in general the HR department in Robin Engel who is one of our teachers is also our grow your own program coordinator they will be hosting our first event of the Howell educator program over break it's called the Howell a day luncheon they're going to host graduates from Francis Hollow School District who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in teaching and really share with them opportunities and resources we had to support them in that pursuit of education and hopefully encourage them to come back and work for Howell we really think that that grow your own model is important as we work as we get closer to this teacher shortage that we know we are experiencing

148Nationwide almost two weeks ago our Francis Howell Vikings made history winning the state football championship the very first time in program history there were over 10 000 students parents community members who were at Pharaoh field at Mizzou for the game the team ended up finishing undefeated 14-0 this year with an average of 34 Point margin over the course of the Season it was also the 50th win for coachnaki which is a special moment you know to have it be that veeam and we will be recognizing the entire team and all the coaches at an upcoming board meeting our how high and how Central Cheerleaders also competed at the MCCA State cheer championship this past weekend both placed in the top 10 squads in Missouri House Central took seventh and how high it took fourth I

149want to congratulate both their teams and those coaches as well and then also how North kicked off a neat program this week where our high school students are eating lunch with some of our elementary students building relationships with them talking about the importance of attendance at school positive behavior getting involved in really hard work in school they're calling this The Shield program and we look forward to building on that and the excitement with those younger students about some days are coming in the future Howell North Knights so last I want to remind everyone that our winter break for students begins next Thursday who will then return on Tuesday January 3rd we've had a lot of transition this fall and sometimes that can be challenging and that that's been true for us and the reality is

150we as a district will always have a lot of challenges and opportunities but it also feels like it's a very successful fall There's A Renewed commitment to working together as a school Community to support Francis Howell and our students sometimes we hear the negative but there's also a lot of great things out there a lot of success and accomplishments we've had this fall that I think we should all be proud of and celebrate I really want to thank our staff our support staff our teachers our building Leaders The District leadership team I have the honor of working with our board of education for their support for me and for the work that we do as well as our patrons this really is teamwork so I wish everyone a Merry Christmas if that is what you

151celebrate and to everyone else I hope that you have a safe and happy holidays over the next couple of weeks and we'll see you all in the new year so thank you foreign any comments or requests one last time uh obviously I'm very lucky to be able to do this thank you to uh Mr Fletcher for appointing me for this thank you to my parents for taking me to these meetings I've been going to these meetings since uh what's going on one to one but uh consistently for about a year and a half now so it's very interesting going on at least I'm usually the only student here it's nice to see students here though and uh you guys talking about me you got to worry about Mr uh Collins in the front row he's

152in kindergarten he's already coming up but uh thank you very much for letting me do this I look forward to uh continuing attend these meetings about the weather you talked about originally was looking like we could get a snow day in next week still hopeful lately uh water projections haven't been too friendly to that position though so but thank you very much Merry Christmas [Applause] we appreciate you coming and interjecting and all of the things so thank you board any any comments questions speakers tonight and there's four that didn't uh get time to come up so I invite you to stick around uh afterwards if you have anything uh you'd like to discuss um find out you're healthy I can't have any more sicknesses in our household this this winter but uh yeah well again

153just invite you to stick around talk if you like or email your comments so thank you thank you I just want to make a cup of comments wanted to wish everybody happy holidays and hopefully there's a good uh Christmas break for all teachers and uh just kind of speak to a little bit of just the the current uh controversy Hot Topics whatever that they're currently is going on and I just wanted to kind of put out there maybe some positive there's a lot of good things that are happening in this District a lot of good things and that's not often celebrated even when it is celebrated some detractors like to spot the negative and I just want to remind people what it's obviously everybody's obligation to trust and verify uh are are different government entities

154but let's do that let's trust and verify not assume the negative and so I just wanted to kind of point that out and also hopefully urge other members on this board to take a position of looking outside of your specific individual selves and see what's greater for the whole rather than the individual there's a lot of different decisions that we make a few that I've had to make that may not be ultimately beneficial in the long run for my own family but that's not why I'm sitting here I don't reflect on my kids to make decisions for all the other kids in the district so I just wanted to put that out there also in the realm of just supporting our supporters and our teachers and our kids there's often times where we have to

155make purchase that purchases that make things a little bit easier myself I'll use an example in my household we purchased a Roomba it's kind of nice the floors for us it takes something off of our plate is a little bit more expensive than a normal vacuum absolutely but in the long run it saves us time it takes things off of our plate so when we make purchases and have recommendations there are recommendations for reasons and we're not the experts in the room so I'd like to point the the emphasis back to the experts in the room whether it's in the classroom or at Administration so I want to throw that out there and wish everybody Happy Holidays I'm recording anything else I hope everyone has a restful winter break and happy holidays or I'd like

156a motion to adjourn the meeting [Music] all those in favor say aye any opposed say no mountain care